FROM NEW YORK UP THE HUDSON RIVER TO WATERFORD, June 2017 (42:47.20N 73:40.70W)

Sat. 10.6 we set off past the Statue of Liberty at 0615, hoping to catch the tide up the Hudson River, a thick, muddy brown river, which runs north from New York. Boats who do this Loop from New York north and west to Buffalo and south on the Mississippi River are called ‘Loopers’. As we plan to take a route from New York to Troy to Lake Ontario, and return to Troy via the St. Lawrence and Richelieu rivers, Lake Champlain and the Champlain Canal to the Hudson River and back to New York, we will be known as ‘Triangle Loopers’, or just Loopy for short.

11.6 we raised our anchor and set off north up the Hudson River, after a night of trains wailing past, we counted up to 180 carriages. We would be taking down our masts before the first low bridges, at Hop O’Nose boatyard, in Catskill, N.Y. We took down our sails and folded them away, and on 13.6 the boys at Hop O’Nose pulled out our masts and we became a Motorboat! We now had a heatwave, 34’C.

We reached our first Lock into the Erie canal on 15.6, and were raised up 14ft into Waterford, where we walked to a supermarket for provisions. We learned that as this is the 200^th anniversary of the Erie canal, charges had been waived in the USA, saving us $100. Waterford is the entrance to the Erie canal.